Yummy Yummy Yummy

by

The Ohio Express

Album: The Ohio Express      Released: 1968

US Chart: 4     UK Chart: 5

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Songfacts:  You can leave comments about the song at the bottom of the page.

This song is a classic hit of the Bubblegum genré, which is a very light style of music with catchy hooks and simple lyrics. In the late '60s, Bubblegum Pop served as an alternative to the socially-conscious music that was dominating the airwaves during an exceptionally turbulent cultural and political time. It was very popular with kids who had no interest in the music of Bob Dylan or The Doors, and sought out music that was basically meaningless, but fun.

Joey Levine, who was the lead singer of The Ohio Express, wrote this with Arthur Resnick, who also wrote "Under The Boardwalk" and "Good Lovin'." Levine worked for Buddah Records under the direction of Jerry Kasenetz and Jeff Katz, who used studio musicians to back up Levine on this song.

Floyd Marcus is the drummer for the 1910 Fruitgum Company, who also recorded for Buddah Records and recorded many of the same songs as The Ohio Express. Says Floyd: "Joey had brought in a demo of 'Yummy Yummy Yummy,' and often back then the demos were not nearly as sophisticated as what you can do at your house today with ProTools - they want much more finished product these days. But Joey went and he did 'Yummy Yummy Yummy' as a demo, and Jeff and Jerry said, 'Yeah, we're going to take you to the studio and do this.' And before they knew it, the demo was out on the market. So it became a big hit, but you know, The Ohio Express wasn't really happy with it going out that way. They never had meant it to go out in the form it did. So it just shows you that often people don't really know what they have, and they don't really understand the business as well as some of these guys who are producing or managing."

Some listeners believed the lyrics "I got love in my tummy" were about pregnancy. Floyd Marcus talks about this phenomenon: "There's that whole story about '1, 2, 3 Red Light' being this underlying date rape song. But you know, that just goes along with people wanting to make more out of things than they really are. I mean, it's like saying when John Lennon said 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' wasn't about LSD, or "Little Susie's Dream" by The Tradewinds, because of the initials, LSD, people read into those things. Hey, it's good for promo. People often want to give more meaning to things than they really have." (Thanks to Floyd for speaking with us about this song. Read his full interview in the Songfacts songwriter interviews.)

This was used in an episode of The Simpsons where in a flashback to 1969, Homer is singing this song while ignoring the moon landing.

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Comments:

The Ohio Express were really 3 "groups", with the actual band by that name (from Ohio) not having any of their hits, but that group would appear on TV shows lip-syncing Joey Levine's songs. Levine also had hits as The Third Rail ("Run Run Run"), The Jet Stream ("All'a Quiet on West 23rd"), Reunion "(Life is a Rock") and the Kasenetz Katz Singing Orchestral Circus ("Quick Joey Small").
- John, Cincinnati, OH

These are not the same people who recorded Beg Borrow and Steal (although the re-release says it's by the Ohio Express). It is easy to hear they are by different people. Beg Borrow and Steal was first released under the Attack label by The Rare Breed (which is exactly the same recording as the one released under the Cameo Parkway label by the Ohio Express).
- Barry, Teaneck, NJ

The flip-side to this record, Zig Zag, is just an instrumental played backwards.
- Mark, London, England

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